Good Food
Mastered sourdough? Nerd out over macroscopic mold
Koji is a mold that survives by growing on its food source, secreting enzymes that perform special tasks such as breaking down starches into simple sugars.
By Evan Kleiman • • 1 min readKoji is a mold that survives by growing on its food source, secreting enzymes that perform special tasks such as breaking down starches into simple sugars. Koji does the hard work, kickstarting fermentation, while Jeremy Umansky and Rich Shih reap the rewards of creating complex boosts of flavor. Their book is “Koji Alchemy.”
Honeysuckle, chestnuts, and grapefruit is how Rich Shih describes the characteristic aroma of koji. Rich and Jeremy Umansky suggest how to put it to work in their book, “Koji Alchemy.” Photo courtesy of Chelsea Green.
The full episode
5 of 6
Seeds, soil science, flavors of wood, untamed food- 0:00Traveling inside fruit: a children’s reading about seeds
- 3:01Soil scientist wins the agricultural equivalent of Nobel Peace Prize
- 13:30Trees, wood, flavor: the obsession of a woodland biologist
- 25:20From Borneo to Sweden, searching for the world’s last untamed foods
- 35:45Mastered sourdough? Nerd out over macroscopic moldYou’re reading this
- 47:43Shutout from the farmer’s market, siblings explore their pivot options
The full episode
5 of 6Seeds, soil science, flavors of wood, untamed food- 0:00Traveling inside fruit: a children’s reading about seeds
- 3:01Soil scientist wins the agricultural equivalent of Nobel Peace Prize
- 13:30Trees, wood, flavor: the obsession of a woodland biologist
- 25:20From Borneo to Sweden, searching for the world’s last untamed foods
- 35:45Mastered sourdough? Nerd out over macroscopic moldYou’re reading this
- 47:43Shutout from the farmer’s market, siblings explore their pivot options